I vaguely recall that Winchester produced three "generations" of the '97 in fairly short order. The first ones were little more than variants on the black-powder fueled 1893, beefed-up to handle smokeless loads. Apparently it took a bit of "Beta-testing" by the customers to iron out all the fiddly details.

From what I heard from contacts in the US, when the Chinese, (Norinco), first introduced their '97 "clone", it had many "issues". One assessment was that whoever had supplied them with the "sample" sent over a heavily "pre-loved" early -production gun. This was faithfully copied, warts, worn and damaged parts and all.

Later ones are allegedly a lot better.

The serial number on the frame will indicate which variant you have. Note that some '97 examples have no visible serial number. There was some caper involving Sears and Roebuck, among others. Some are simply marked "WRA Co." As others have mentioned, contact a '97 specialist to avoid further frustration.